We took a weekend trip to Saipan for the weekend, mostly to do some bird watching and exploring. Turns out that Saipan is a HOTBED for abandoned places to explore, both military and civil. This is the first of 3 posts, with lots of photos behind the cut.

La Fiesta Mall was the largest mall in the Marianas while it was in use between 1992 and 2004. Japan Airways pulled out of Saipan and tourism never recovered. The site was abandoned and has not found any new investment.

Certainly one of the coolest and extensive ruins I've been able to explore!

Brownsville, PA sits on the National Road and has a beautiful historic downtown. It was once very bustling. However, due to a number of reasons, nearly all of the buildings are vacant. Despite this, there are efforts to maintain the history and streetscape. Let's visit, shall we?

Hello again, I'm still home sick so here's another Rundown Town photodump!

This time we'll visit Grafton, WV, a formerly booming railroad town.. now a hometowny little place looking for it's niche.

Grafton's hotel was an important railroad stop.. the lobby faced the tracks. It's been abandoned for many years but is being semi-protected and is theoretically "mothballed," so isn't falling into further decay, hopefully. The neighboring train station has been converted into a very nice museum.

It's probably been years since I've posted here... but this week I'm home sick with a horrible cough and thought maybe I'd share some photos with communities that still seemed to be semi-active. Over the last year I've had a great time exploring a lot of small towns in my surrounding area. I thought you might like to see pictures from some of my adventures. I can break it up into chunks by town.. in fact.. I think I will. So if you like this I'll post a lot more!

old school in a small town in kansas(a few more on flickr, upon clicking image)

it is clear this was once a comfortable self-contained village, now a few houses (occupied) scattered on a few shady streets, with weedy sidewalks along with sandy roads. it reminded me of my childhood in the south. the main street, with garage, old store, hardware (now down) and community building. the bank cattycornered. all abandoned and decrepit (the garage has received a new life, however, and the community building is still used for town meetings). we were told these things by two local men, who drove up on tractors to check us out. the oldest stated there were once THREE groceries, and pointed to their places. across a tidy park, the school, abandoned, is wide open for respectful observation. a white dog with a red tumor in its eye might join your tour. there is not a spot of graffiti in this town, on the buildings. i do not want to say its name here, for protection of the place.